This invention relates to a cloth spreading machine, and more particularly to a cloth feed apparatus for a cloth spreading machine.
Various types of cloth feed apparatus have been utilized in the past for supporting and feeding a web of cloth from a cloth roll on a cloth spreading machine, in which the cloth roll is supported upon a cradle of cloth rollers or cloth feed belts, such as illustrated in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,265,452; Isaacs; May 7, 1918 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,118,556; Haberstump et al.; May 24, 1938 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,276,479; Gilbert; Mar. 17, 1942 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,412,950; Martin, Sr.; Nov. 26, 1968
In the Martin, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,412,950, a pair of parallel fluted rollers support a cloth roll and are adapted to be driven to feed a web of cloth from the cloth roll supported by the rollers. The circumferentially spaced alternating ribs and depressions in the fluted rollers accumulate slack created by the weight of the roll engaging the rollers, and the web fed from the roll is less wrinkled when spread upon the cutting table.
However, it has been found that when the cloth roll is excessively heavy, the fluted rolls which both support and feed the web of cloth from a cloth roll cannot overcome the excess slack generated from such a heavy roll.
The problem of smoothly feeding a web of cloth from an excessively heavy roll was solved in the Martin, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,897, issued July 30, 1968, in which the spindle extending through the core of the cloth roll was suspended by a motor-controlled chain mechanism and gradually lowered into engagement with a pair of feeding rollers.
However, the size of cloth rolls handled by cloth spreading machines are becoming larger and heavier in the garment industry. Some cloth rolls are so large and heavy that the spindles extending through their core bend and are severely strained when the cloth roll is supported solely by the spindle. Such heavy cloth rolls are more effectively supported upon the cradle-type rollers.
However, even though such heavy cloth rolls may be satisfactorily supported upon cradle-type rollers, nevertheless, utilizing the same rollers to both support and feed the heavier cloth rolls presents problems in controlling the slack and wrinkles in the web of cloth laid upon the spreading or cutting table in a cloth spreading operation.